An Unlikely Partnership
by Beth Winter
Summary: While Ban is away, Ginji finds himself with the last partner he thought he'd go on a retrieval mission with...


Note: Japanese suffixes preserved because "Ginji-kun" when purred by Akabane's seiyuu sounds bloody sexy. But no other fangirl Japanese.  
Disclaimer: Not mine. Playing.  


AN UNLIKELY PATNERSHIP  
by Beth (renfri@astercity.net)  


Ginji swore to himself he would never, ever accept a solo retrieval mission again. He was starting to see why Ban did not want to accept assignments from Hevn so much. The intermediary had described this one as a "childishly easy assignment."  


With Ban off for the weekend pretending to be Himiko's boyfriend at her cousin's wedding (apparently Lady Poison did have one thing she feared - questions from her family about when she would get married) and Shido, Madoka, Kazuki and Juubei on what amounted to a double-date mini-vacation, Ginji had decided to retrieve the businessman's stolen documents by himself.  


After all, what could go wrong?  


Apparently, a lot. Getting into the remote villa in the mountains had been admittedly easy - too easy, he saw now. He had fried the security system with a well-aimed electrical charge, snuck into the seemingly deserted house and got into the safe without breaking the sweat. It turned out that the surprise had been waiting for him on the way back. He could have made it through a dozen Yakuza goons with machine guns, but four dozen were a bit over his range.  


He peered again over the upturned table that provided his cover. Immediately a hail of bullets struck his hideout. He cowered back and felt the wood of the table shiver and splinter. He racked his mind for solutions: Ban-chan was away. The circuitry inside the building was already shorted out; the gangsters had to be using night vision goggles to aim in the windowless corridor. He couldn't get close enough to take them out, and even his speed was no help if there was not enough room between the bullets to maneuver in..  


He whimpered.  


Then he realized something had changed. The shooting stopped, and instead he heard a series of dull thumps, like some heavy things hitting the floor.  


His battle sense prickled. He _knew_ this dark, oppressive presence...  


A strong hand closed around his collar and hauled him to his feet. In the semi-darkness, the other man's pale face almost glowed.  


"Hello, Ginji-kun," Akabane Kuroudo said politely.  


Ginji whimpered again, louder. "A-akabane-san? What are you doing here??"  


"I have been hired to transport the documents you have just retrieved to the client. If you would hand them over, please?"  


The boy swallowed convulsively, remembering the businessman mention something about 'arranging transportation'. For a moment he wanted nothing more than push the papers at Akabane and get _out_. But he did accept the assignment, and said the words, and he was not going to let the honour of the Get Backers down!  


"I'm the one hired to retrieve the documents! I have to deliver them to the client's hands!" he protested.  


"Then I suggest we go now," Akabane said, looking over Ginji's shoulder. "Unless you want to dodge bullets again - would that be your preference, Ginji-kun?"  


Ginji yelped and hid behind Akabane's ever-present coat. "Let's go!" he agreed.  


He tried very hard not to think what the slick liquid on the stairs was as he followed the Transporter. With a quick jump he cleared the pile of bodies in the hallway of the building and ran out into the street. He looked around for whatever could be Akabane's transportation - he half expected it to be another truck. That was fine with him, he could ride in the back, well away from the homicidal maniac...  


Then Akabane dragged him to a sleek black sports car. The black-clad man was at the driver's side in a blink of an eye, moving faster than the eye could follow. Meanwhile, Ginji froze at the open passenger door.  


"No, no, no, no!" he whined. "I'm not getting into a car that small with you!"  


Two things happened at once. One of the remaining snipers fired off a volley of automatic gunfire at the spot where Ginji stood. And Akabane's arm pulled the retriever inside the car as its owner stepped on the gas pedal, the rush of air shutting the door.  


Ginji blinked. It appeared that he was currently lying halfway across Akabane's lap.  


As he moved to the passenger seat, he exhibited speed impressive enough for Akabane to throw him an appreciative glance. But instead of commenting, the black-clad man simply reached over with one long arm and fastened Ginji's seat belt.  


"Hold on," he said mildly. "Sonya is very fast if she needs to."  


Ginji was puzzled. Sonya? Then he looked around the solid-black interior of the car and noticed the single word inscribed on the dashboard. It took him a moment to decipher the flowing Latin script.  


"Sonya? You named your car?"  


"Yes. After a very... unique woman."  


Ginji decided there were things he did _not_ want to know. And the reason for Akabane's wistful smile right now was definitely one of them.  


At least the man could drive, and very well at that. The sports car took the curves of the mountain road perfectly. In a few minutes they were well away from the villa and Ginji relaxed enough to get interested in the car's sound system. He pushed the play button on the CD player, and a strangely familiar music filled the car.  


"Where's this from?" the boy demanded.  


"It's the James Bond theme."  


"Why James Bond?"  


Akabane shrugged. "Sonya is an Aston Martin Vanquish. James Bond drives one in the latest movie. I thought it fitting."  


Ginji reached to another row of shiny buttons.  


"Don't touch that." Akabane caught Ginji's hand and deposited it firmly back on the seat.  


"Why? It triggers the seat catapult?"  


"Yes."  


"Wow! And-what-does-that-button-do-" Ginji's outburst was cut short by Akabane's hand over his mouth. "Mmmph!" the boy insisted. "Okay, I get it, no touching the car..."  


They stopped talking when they hit the highway, since Akabane had to concentrate on weaving through the heavy traffic of people returning from weekend trips. Ginji amused himself by humming along to "View to a Kill" and "Tomorrow Never Dies", and tried very hard not to notice the way other cars tended to veer to the sides and bump into each other in Sonya's wake. But he did pay attention to the rear view mirror, and soon he noticed two cars which were firmly tailing the Aston Martin despite Akabane's wild maneuvers.  


"Akabane-san-" he started.  


"I see them." Akabane was smiling as serenely as ever. "Can you throw an electric shock into a car to the side?"  


Ginji frowned. "If they've got a window open, yes. Otherwise it'll just go over the body of the car."  


"Then we will have to get them to open the window..." He hit the brakes.  


Sonya swerved and slowed down abruptly. The tailing cars shot over them, then adjusted to the speed, pulling up on both sides of the Aston Martin. The passenger-side window of the one on the right rolled down, and the muzzle of a submachine gun was extended almost to Sonya's window.  


Akabane hit the electric switch that opened the driver's side window and ducked. Ginji leaned over, decided to go for broke and simply grabbed the gun, sending the electric impulse through the oxidized metal. The enemy car swerved convulsively, crashing into the barrier that bisected the highway.  


Akabane grabbed the wheel again and turned it, pushing the remaining enemy car to the side of the road. He leaned out of the window, keeping one hand on the wheel the entire time, and threw a single knife with surgical precision. The tire did not stand a chance; the car went over the shoulder of the road and came to an abrupt stop in a tree grove. As if on cue, Sonya's sound system segued into "Die Another Day".  


At the next exit they drove off the highway into a side road less likely to attract their pursuers. Ginji slowly relaxed his hold on the seat and turned the music down. In the silence, the growling of his empty stomach was even louder.  


"Look in the glove compartment," Akabane suggested.  


It turned out that the glove box was a miniaturized fridge, which held half a dozen sandwiches.  


"The ones in the red wrapping are yours."  


"Well-" Ginji was nonplussed, but grabbed a red-wrapped sandwich without hesitation.  


"I knew I'd be working with you on this assignment. So I prepared additional food."  


The retriever paused mid-bite. "That's my favorite! How did you know?" He looked doubtfully at the almost artistic composition of lettuce, wild tomatoes and chicken grilled in a strange honey-like sauce.  


"I know lots of things about you, Ginji-kun."  


Ginji cringed. "Do you have to be so creepy?"  


"It's an art."  


"I see..." The boy turned back to his sandwich. "But this is delicious. Where did you buy them?"  


"I made them."  


Ginji did a double take. "You _cook_?"  


"Yes. It's a challenge for my skills. And I seem to have a natural talent for dicing."  


"I bet..." Ginji muttered before reaching for the next sandwich.  


"It's also a better hobby than others in this line of work tend to have." Akabane grinned.  


"Like what?"  


"Doll collecting or veterinary for example. Cooking is more useful."  


Ginji finished his sandwiches in silence, then upon a request handed one to Akabane. Soon afterwards they saw a car pulled over at the other side of the forest road they drove on, with barely enough space for Sonya to squeeze through between the other car and the trees on the side of the road. The Transporter hit the brakes and got out of the car.  


"Would you mind moving your car, sir?" he asked politely of the other vehicle's driver, who was standing to the side with a young girl, perhaps seven years of age. The child had her face hidden in her hands.  


"Oh, I'm sorry!" the other man exclaimed. "Right away. It's just that we just passed a police roadblock, and those people were very impolite. I'm afraid they made my daughter cry."  


Ginji got out as well to take a closer look at the little girl. She wept quietly, with a low keening sound deep in her throat.  


"It's alright, kid," he told her. "They're gone. You're safe now."  


Wide brown eyes peered at him from between little fingers. Then she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his leg.  


"Mitsuko-chan!" her father exclaimed.  


"It's all right," Ginji assured him. He picked the child up. "She's no trouble."  


He waited with the girl and Akabane by the side of the road as the other car was being moved.  


"I like you," Mitsuko told him resolutely. "You've got nice eyes. Those bad people had no eyes."  


"No eyes?" Ginji asked.  


"They had those sun things. Sunglasses. And they were mean! Kept asking about those paper things. And they took my notebook!"  


"I'm sure they were," the retriever agreed. "Now run along to your father."  


Mitsuko nodded. "Bye, niisan!"  


When they got into the Aston Martin, the two men looked at each other.  


"Police uniforms, sunglasses, misconduct and looking for documents," Akabane counted off. "They got ahead of us. We'll wait until sunset; we'll have a better chance of getting through the roadblock then."  


They parked Sonya in a deserted clearing, hidden from the main road. It was a peaceful part of the forest; the sun shone warmly, birds sang in the bushes and the air smelled of pine resin. Ginji stretched in the seat and tried to stay awake. Despite his continued awareness of Akabane's dark presence next to him, months of sleeping in Ban's Volkswagen left him with an instinct to nap each time he was in an unmoving car. Besides, he was pretty sure the other man did not mean to harm him this time. They were after all on the same mission... partners.... yawn...  


A crack of a branch broken under someone's foot woke Ginji up. He was instantly alert, aware of everything. It was dark outside, and even darker in the black interior of the car. He was stretched over the front seats, and his head was lying on something warm and black. The windows were open. He could hear someone approaching the car, trying to be quiet.  


Then he realized just what - or rather who - he was using as a pillow, and almost jumped straight through the roof without using the seat catapult. But Akabane had foreseen the movement and put his hand on the boy's head, keeping him down. After a half-second struggle, Ginji subsided, relaxing once again with his head on the other man's chest.  


"Don't move, they'll see you," Akabane whispered, scarcely louder than a breath. The soft vibration of his voice sent shivers through Ginji's body. "There's three of them. We need to take out all of them before they have a chance to contact the others. I can take out the two next to the car, but the third one's ten meters away and out of my line of fire. He'll have time to raise alarm before I open the car door. Can you electrocute him?"  


Ginji closed his eyes. "I can't throw a strong electric impulse on that distance," he whispered back. "I'd need a focus."  


"Will a knife do?"  


The boy nodded.  


"Then come here... slowly. They're looking at us, they must not see movement."  


Ginji slid slowly over to the other seat, his body flush against Akabane's. The hand that had been holding his head now slid around his waist, anchoring him. He reached with his own hand to the other arm, which rested at the edge of the window. He felt the scalpel protrude between Akabane's knuckles, and angled it slightly so that the aim was true. His eyes were closed, but he saw the electricity patterns clearly: two men on this side, their hands on their guns and cellphones. Another in front of the car, looking at the license plate in the dim starlight of the moonless night. So the energy had to go... there.  


He concentrated and released it, the impulse bright and pure. With the conductivity of the metal blade, he could intensify it. He went for the one farthest away first, in an arc of painfully bright light. Then back to the two others, a cat's cradle of pocket-sized lightning. And back to the knife, and again. And again. And again.  


Then he released the circuit, and three bodies hit the ground. He opened his eyes and looked into Akabane's violet ones, wide open and bright with delight.  


"Such power..." Akabane all but purred, smiling, tightening his grip on the boy.  


And Ginji smiled back, and even if part of it was Raitei's glee at damage done to his enemies, he did not mind.  


They dragged the unconscious goons into the bushes and set off for the roadblock. Sonya's lights were turned off and instead the windshield lit up with a strange green glow, outlining the road in enhanced starlight. Akabane busied himself with pushing various buttons and switches on the dashboard, seemingly not paying attention to the fact the roadblock was already visible.  


"What are we going to do?" Ginji demanded.  


The Transporter smiled. "Wait and you will see, Ginji-kun."  


Then the lights did come on, but in a different configuration. Two antennas unfolded upwards, with halogen headlights at the ends. The Aston Martin's own headlights revolved, changed their shape and became brighter. The sound system started emitting the sounds of a powerful but deregulated engine, masking the sound of Sonya's own quiet engine.  


To someone on the dark road, they would seem like an oncoming truck.  


The people at the roadblock - and they were not police, Ginji saw, because the police did not carry submachine guns - scattered to the sides. Apparently their gang loyalty did not extend to being flattened under the wheels of an out-of-control truck. But the barricade remained, large chunks of metal gathered in a pile almost two meters high. Ginji braced himself for impact.  


And then Akabane pushed the final button. It felt like being hit by lightning, Ginji thought. A powerful boost, and then they were flying, over the barricade and onto the pavement. Another sharp tug on the safety belt as the car hit the road, but then they were onwards and away, without losing barely any speed.  


After a moment Ginji remembered he did have a tongue and did not manage to bite it off despite the best efforts. "Wow!"  


One of Akabane's hands left the wheel to brush the dashboard briefly, caressingly. "Good girl."  


The rest of the ride was uneventful. Finally at close to four in the morning they arrived at the client's mansion on the outskirts of Tokyo. The lights were all on; the client was waiting for them.  


They were shown into the hall. The businessman stood on the staircase, flanked by his bodyguards. Ginji wondered since when decent businessmen were able and needed to get bodyguards that big and scary. Oops.  


He still handed over the documents without batting an eyelash.  


"Thank you," the client said politely. "Those are very valuable to me." He gestured at the bodyguards. "Unfortunately they're much more valuable if no-one knows I'm the one who has them, so I'm afraid I can't let you go and let people know I hired you..."  


The bodyguards cracked their knuckles. Ginji and Akabane exchanged looks.  


"Shall we, Ginji-kun?"  


"Just don't kill them, okay?"  


"Why ever not?"  


"Um... because if we leave stupid gangsters alone, the police have an easier job?" Ginji noted his argument did not have much impact. "Pretty please?"  


Akabane sighed. "If you ask so nicely..."  


A few moderately exciting minutes later they left the house. Fortunately the businessman was considerate enough to have a briefcase with their combined fee in used banknotes nearby, so the day's work wasn't a waste.  


"Aaah, I'm hungry again!" Ginji complained as they exited the mansion. "And no decent place is open at this hour!"  


"There's an ice-cream parlour close to here," Akabane offered. "It's open twenty-four hours a day, a specialty place."  


The boy frowned. "How do you know that?"  


"I know every ice-cream parlour in Tokyo." The Transporter wrinkled his nose derisively. "Every one worth knowing, that is."  


Ginji hesitated for all of two second. On one hand, more time with creepy Akabane-san. On the other, ice-cream. Implied very good ice-cream. And Akabane-san seemed far more mellow when somewhat sleepy... "Let's go!!"  


~~~  


Three hours later:  


The silence inside the Volkswagen bordered on oppressive.  


"It's not my fault," Himiko protested for the fifteenth time. "How was I supposed to know the maid of honour would bring Fudou as her date?"  


Ban sighed, adjusting his bandages. "Shut up already. You're buying me ice-cream as an apology."  


They stopped in front of an ice-cream parlour that was surprisingly open even at this early hour of the morning. They were even more surprised when they went inside: both waitresses were cowering behind the counter next to the door. One of the girls waved desperately at Ban and Himiko.  


"I'm not sure you should go into the parlour, sir and madam!" she hissed hurriedly. "They're... scary..."  


Ban realized he was hearing two giggling voices. They were coming from a table hidden behind a large potted plant. They were also somewhat familiar.  


"...and then they found him just lying there, with a hole in his chest. Nothing was _officially_ determined, but there were those sakura petals everywhere..."  


Ban twitched. He knew that lazy drawl, even if currently it was even more amused than normally.  


"Well, he deserved it!" another person choked out. Then the same boyish voice howled with laughter. And sent electric sparks flying everywhere.  


Ban and Himiko looked at each other. Then they went around the potted plant.  


Akabane and Ginji were sprawled on the sofas surrounding a table. The table was piled with empty ice-cream bowls, spoons and coffee cups. And they were laughing. Correction, giggling.  


Ban found a vial of poison perfume shoved under his nose.  


"Alright, wise guy, when did you put the Evil Eye on me?" Himiko hissed.  


He twitched. "I didn't."  


"Ban-chan!" Ginji bounced in his seat, waving a spoon. "We're having ice-cream! Did you have fun?"  


Ban twitched again.  


"We ran into Fudou," Himiko explained.  


Ginji started giggling. "I have to meet that guy sometime! Juubei told me how he's towards Ban-chan... sounds fun!"  


"How would that be?" Akabane demanded, stealing some of Ginji's ice cream with a deft flick of a knife.  


Ginji pulled his hair over his forehead and stretched out his left hand, wriggling the fingers wildly. "Midou.... Midou... my bloodlust tingles at the prospect of his death... Midou..."  


Then he dissolved into another giggling fit, slumping against Akabane. The Transporter seemed unable to control his own laughter.  


"Jackal..." Himiko frowned. "How much ice-cream did you two have?"  


Akabane regained a bit of his usual composure as he looked around the table, seemingly unaware of the boy who was treating his shoulder as a pillow and yawning widely. "Chocolate, vanilla, caramel, vanilla and chocolate chip, caramel and chocolate chip, chocolate and chocolate chip, green tea, sweet milk, strawberry, wild strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherry, apple, mango, papaya, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, ruby grapefruit... uh..."  


"And the cake ones!" Ginji joined in. "Apple pie, cheesecake, tiramisu and cookie!"  


"Right, can't forget cookie," Akabane agreed.  


Ginji waved at the cowering waitresses. "Miss, can we have some more cookie ice cream?"  


"You want _more_ ice cream?" Ban demanded.  


"No, it's for you. You'll like it."  


"I. Don't. Want. Ice cream. Let's go home, Ginji." Ban clenched his fists.  


"You want to fight?" Akabane offered suddenly, displaying some of his knives.  


"No!" Ginji caught hold of his arm. "That wouldn't be fair, Akabane-san. You're too fast for Ban-chan when you've had so much sugar and caffeif - caffie-"  


"Caffeine?" the black-clad man prompted.  


"Right."  


Himiko tugged at Ban's sleeve. "I don't even want to think about how they got to be here, but they've got the attention spans of gnats on acid, and they're also about to pass out from a sugar overdose. What do we do?"  


Ban smiled evilly. "We wait until they do pass out. And then..."  


But he regretted it later, when it turned out that Akabane's coat was stainproof and could not be written on. And when Ginji kept insisting the Ladybug needed a jumping mechanism and a seat catapult.  


~FINIS~  


Notes:  
"Sonya" - while the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish is indeed a Bond car from "Die Another Day", Sonya's unique abilities owe quite a bit to the eighties TV series "Knight Rider" as well. And she is named after Sonya of course - a member of this community and a friend of mine ^_^  
"View to a Kill" by Duran Duran, "Tomorrow Never Dies" by Sheryl Crow and "Die Another Day" by Madonna are all themes to Bond movies.  
Sides of cars during the car chases: in Japan, you drive on the left, so the driver is on the right and the passenger on the left. You can see it very clearly in Get Backers any time Ban and Ginji are sitting in the Ladybug! I kept this arrangement in the fic - after all, the Aston Martin is a British car so there's no problems with getting it in a driver's seat on the right configuration.  
The anecdote Akabane's telling Ginji about in the ice-cream parlour is my own "Yami no Kopiraito" - a silly piece of X1999/Yami no Matsuei fanfiction. Available at my site if you're interested.  
Ban is somewhat more tense here than usual, but I blame it on Fudou. That guy's enough to ruin anyone's mood.  
Yes, there are ice-cream parlours that serve all those flavours and more. Malinova in Warsaw is one of them.  


Question for the readers: I want to write a spy story, James Bond style. Out of all my fandoms I think GB would be the one most suited to the genre. So, anybody want to read about the adventures of Secret Agents Midou and Amano?  



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